IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS BEERPosted By: Thrasybulus 1/12/2013 9:07:01 PMFrary Home Companion, by Professor John FraryOriginal Article

The restless hunt for stimulants across the whole range of human time and space is beyond question, dispute or even doubt. The historical record on this is as clear as anything in history can ever be.
It is strange that cultural anthropologists have never drawn the obvious lesson from this. They all seem to assume that agriculture began when game and wild gatherings began to run out. Yet it is plain silly to assume that the universal desire for stimulants can only have post-dated the beginnings of agriculture.
Prior to the miracles of modern chemistry all stimulants were the products of